Daily samples of airborne and deposited radioactivity were collected in Israel during the months following the 1961 nuclear weapon tests. The age and composition of the fallout was determined by radiochemical and decay analysis. Meteorological analysis of the data shows that except for one case of direct cross-European transport, the favoured path of arrival of the early radioactive fallout into the Levant was by a circumpolar route in the upper troposphere. From December 1961 onwards there is evidence for increasing stratospheric contribution to the collected radioactivity.DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1963.tb01368.x